Bettors ‘Close Down’ Supabets with a Whopping GH¢127,000 Betting Wins! See How It Happened…

Post by Peace Ezebuiro

The abnormal wins of bettors which have amounted to a prodigal GH¢127,000 is suspected to be the hand work of hackers, says Supabets

Officials of Supabets Sports Betting say they suspect fraudsters hacked into their system resulting in abnormal recording of betting wins which have now risen to over GH¢127,000.00 from an initial GH¢50,000.00

The winners had given Superbets a 48-hour ultimatum which eventually expired Thursday.

According to Myjoyonline reports, over 30 bettors, wearing red armbands, on Thursday besieged the Asafo office to disrupt work over unpaid wins, and also threatening to set ablaze the Kumasi offices of the South African-owned enterprise.

“We made sure that they were not able to work. All the bouncers, we made sure that we sent them out. Nobody too will stake a bet because you are owing us, and you haven’t paid us and you are still expecting other customers to come and bet. Why if they win and you don’t pay them too so today we stopped them from working”, one of the affected bettors said.

Before this incident, about 29 of them on Tuesday lodged a complaint over the incident with the Asokwa police.

However, local managers say the company cannot be blamed for abnormal odds published in its system which is the basis of winning claims.

Security Consultant of Supabets, Jacob Atta Baffuor-Awuah, while agreeing with the claims that the company’s system gave out wrong odds, said raising that huge amount to pay the bettors is difficult.

“We believe that the odds that the system gave them were wrong odds. So if it’s wrong odds, where are we gonna get money to pay them, never. It’s not gonna happen. That is why we are saying somebody hacked the system,” said Mr. Baffuor-Awuah.

He added that the police are investigating hacking claims by company officials, and that the stand-off between the company and the bettors has been referred to the Gaming Commission for arbitration.

The bettors, according to Mr. Baffuor-Awuah risk losing only the total amount of money won respectively, but not the amount they used in staking the bet.

Buttressing this point, Mr. Baffuor-Awuah said Supabets cannot be held responsible for the publishing of wrong odds though he admits there was a mistake. Making reference to Airlines and doctors who are not penalized for the occurrence of mistakes that result to loss of life, Mr Baffuor explained that the issue was a system mistake. Also describing the problem as an ‘occupational hazard, he insisted that both the owner and staff of Superbets have done nothing wrong.

He further explained that in situations like this, they only pay bettors the money they used to stake the bet. He concluded by saying, “they are not gonna get any money.”

However, Mr. Baffour Awuah’s comments increased the fury of the bettors who vowed they will take the matter to any level, including the law courts to ensure they are paid the worth of their wins.

Meanwhile, the Police have been keeping surveillance at Supabets offices to forestall possible attacks on the facilities by the angry winners.